‘You only get one shot so why not?’: The Bear’s Matty Matheson on cooking, addiction and making the most of life

Millions knew him as The Bear’s lovable goofball Neil Fak, but his own story is more than a match for the show’s boiling tension. He talks about his restaurant empire, YouTube fame and journey back from addiction

Acting was never an intentional addition to Matty Matheson’s expansive repertoire. At 42, he’s a bona fide, if unconventional, business mogul: chef, restaurateur and food YouTube big-leaguer. He runs 10 successful restaurants across Ontario. One in the US, another coming. Two fashion brands. There’s his farm in Canada. A range of cookware. For years, he was a face of Munchies, Vice’s food vertical. His YouTube channel has 1.5m subscribers. And there are his cookbooks, the third of which – Soups, Salads, Sandwiches – we’re primed to discuss. The last two were New York Times bestsellers. “The first was my life through a culinary lens,” he says. “The second, my ode to the great cookbooks: stock, bread, pickles, preserves.” And this one? “It’s things you make every day.” Maybe chez Matheson: deep-fried waffle-breakfast-sandwich with mascarpone, freezer strawberry jam, fried egg and bacon – not quite standard fare for most of us. He has a full- throttle approach to cooking, as he does to everything. “You only get one shot,” is his motto, “so why not? That’s how I think about things. Whatever I do, I give my all.”

It’s this attitude Matheson took when Christopher Storer – international smash-hit series The Bear’s creator, co-showrunner, writer, and director – called out of the blue. Storer asked: would Matheson consult on his new show? They were prepping for the pilot. Matheson obliged. “I came on as a consultant,” he says, “to share the realities of how people move, how people talk, how people think about food in restaurants. The high intensity moments. Uncompromising lifestyle.”

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‘You only get one shot so why not?’: The Bear’s Matty Matheson on cooking, addiction and making the most of life

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